Counter

Last Amazing Full Day In Bali

We ate our wonderful breakfast that comes with the Cicada rental of the townhouse and it was great!I tried Nasi Goreng which is a traditional Indonesian meal of rice, spices, meat and vegetables and wrapped in a fried egg which you chop up and add to the rice mixture.I would like to find a good recipe and try and recreate this dish at home and you can add whatever you want to it.

Kim and I booked spa treatments at Body Works which is technically in the town of Petitenget not Seminyak where we really were staying as well.Body Works was a 5 minute walk from our townhouse.The phone number is 0361733317735058 just in case you stay in the Seminyak area.They do traditional Balinese massage which is unreal.My two hour massage is their signature massage that they specialize in.I think it was around 28 USD, and it begins with changing yourself into a disposable panty and laying face down on the massage table.The female masseuse spreads your legs slightly apart in order to accommodate her getting up onto the bed and kneeling between your legs to start the massage.It involves a full body massage from the tips of your toes to the top of your head with a series of pressure points, massage etc helped by whatever oil she chooses for what your skin needs.The massage is like heaven, there were some sore spots which she got to and she seemed to know where they were and she worked on them.I have had a knot in my neck ever since 1991 I am sure it is just a coincidence that this was the year that I began teaching, yah right. She worked on it but to no avail, this baby is here to stay or at least until retirement.

The massage portion lasted about 1 ½ hours and did I say how wonderful it was?She then begins the exfoliation portion by smoothing on a nice smelling mud-like paste with some sort of ground peach pit or something?She waited for about 5 minutes for it to dry slightly and take its affect on your skin and then she exfoliates you by rubbing you down on your front side until you are as smooth as a babies bum and then repeats the process for the back of your body.Just in case I forgot to mention that the massage and the exfoliation includes your whole body, yes, your boobies get a thorough going over as well.The traditional Balinese Massage is not for the faint at heart or the prudes.Don’t let your modesty get in the way of an incredible massage. If you come to Bali, get her done.

After the exfoliation process you stand up and step into a shallow tub like structure where she has prepared in another round tub full of rose petals and hot water.She then begins to ladle you off with this scented water, just close your eyes and enjoy being pampered.Yes it is a bit weird that you are now completely standing buck naked in front of this woman you don’t know.I forgot to say that you have removed your disposable panties at this point so that she can get all of the exfoliant off of your body.Oh it gets weirder now.She then applies a delicious smelling vanilla yogurt to your whole body and rubs this in and it does feel great because it is so smooth.She ladles you off again with the warm scented water and as she is doing this you are tempted to lick your arms down because it is allot of work being embarrassed and I was hungry.Seriously I was only embarrassed for ½ of a second because I did not want my North American style prudishness getting in the way of a wonderful experience and who am I to get in the way of a Balinese traditional massage that the Indonesians have been enjoying for thousands of years??Seriously I am just a girl from Saskatoon and the painful massage therapy that I regularly go through in Saskatchewan could maybe fall to the wayside if I had the opportunity to take a regular relaxing traditional Balinese massage on occasion.

I can’t forget to mention the last part of the massage experience.After she is done the ladling off of the yogurt she puts on a soap mitt and soaps you down with warm soapy lather and everywhere gets a scrub.She ladles you off once more and you just close your eyes and enjoy the pampering again.She then leads you to a very warm bathtub that she has prepared in the room and it is so pretty and romantic looking with rose petals and plumeria flowers floating in the water.Darren hates things like this and there was a couple’s massage experience but Darren would not go for it.So me, myself and I got into the tub and soaked for a full 10 minutes and you listen to Balinese music that has been playing the whole time and look out the open window to the beautiful flora and realize that this is one of the best things that you have ever had done to you and you want to come back to Bali just to do it again.The bad news is that I had to get out of the tub and get dressed, the good news is that I had also booked a one hour facial and ½ hour foot reflexology and ½ hour foot massage.This was just as wonderful but pretty much the same experience as you would get in Canada except for less than half the price.My facial was only about 17 USD.My combined foot experience was about 20 dollars and the reflexology was much better than what I had received in Canada.During the facial when your face mask is drying she provides a hand, arm and shoulder massage for 10 minutes.Personally if I lived in Bali I would get a foot massage every day a facial once a week and a massage every other week.This may be a great place to retire and very soon.

So I left Body Works 4 hours later than when I came in and walked back by myself to our townhouse.I felt totally safe walking in Bali and totally relaxed on my stroll back to the townhouse. My brother only had a 1 ½ hour massage and Melissa did not come because she regularly gets all of the above done in Ho Chi Min City, Vietnam where they live.She only pays 4 dollars for her facials and 8 dollars for her massages.It is ridiculously cheap in Vietnam and for all of these reasons; I am considering going back again to visit them in Vietnam.Ho Chi Min City is a bit of a hole; but the shopping, food, sized to order clothes, and massages and facials and pedicures rock.The visa to get into Vietnam is really expensive though and cost my family 300 CDN to get into the country in 2009 and multiple entry is even more expensive.I would like to combine a trip back to Vietnam with Cambodia to see Anchor Wat and then swing down to Bali again.

After my lovely experience of being pampered it was hard to concentrate on Dax’s schoolwork that needed to be done but we were not going to the beach unless it happened, so onward ho.After the schoolwork was complete, Dax and I walked to the beach and laid out my towel to sit and I noticed that there were some ominous clouds looming on the horizon and sure enough a windstorm kicked up and literally sandblasted us like a sandstorm in the desert.We had to run for cover because it hurt your skin and you could not see anything due to the sand pelting your eyes.I covered Dax with the beach towel to protect him and he was running and holding my hand but he could not see a thing due to the towel.Then the rainstorm hit and washed most of the sand off of our sand pelted bodies.By the time we got home we were thoroughly doused by the rain and my body had its second exfoliation of the day from the sand.Well I was soaked already and Dax wanted to play in the pool so we went in for about an hour and the pool was not even heated but it is one of the warmest pools I have ever been in.It was a lovely pool with a Hindu princess statue of her head with a waterfall falling over her face at one end and urns and plants resembling a jungle were all around the pool.The Balinese have the most extraordinary gardens and yards that have been designed for the tourists.My yard looks kind of tawdry next to these sanctuaries.

We all ordered in a great meal from the Cicada people and I blended up a storm of Pina Coladas for Kim and I.We all stayed up talking and then we had a bright idea to phone Mom and so we did and then since we had to get up at 5 am the next morning to catch our first flight to Brunei, we decided to turn it in for the night.